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Chapter 5

While the bulk of SG-1 sat in the middle of the small cell, learning all they could about Shomei, Col. O'Neill was pacing back and forth in front of the door. The rest of them simply ignored him. Probably because they knew that he was trying to come up with a plan to get them out of this slightly difficult predicament.

Inside the 'thinking circle' as Shomei called it, everyone (Daniel and Carter) was busily questioning Shomei on her vital statistics, and everything she had learned about Niirti. Teal'c just listened intently, sometimes raising the ever quizzical brow.

"Are you from Earth?" Daniel asked. "Yes. I am from…uuuhhh…I can't remember the name…it starts with an 'A', I think". "Alabama?" Carter suggested. "No…" she answered, still trying to remember. "Algeria?" Daniel pitched in. "Where's that?" she asked. "It is a state within Africa, is it not Daniel Jackson?" Teal'c decided to add. "YES! THAT'S IT! I used to live in Africa". They were all slightly startled by her outburst but quickly recovered. Col. O'Neill, who had finally stopped pacing and was moving to join them, put in, "Africa, huh? Nice continent…not so nice natives. What part of Africa are you from?" She closed her eyes, seemingly trying to remember. "I am from Mali. My home was in Gao, just ten miles away from the Niger River".

After a few moments of silence, Shomei hung her head with a sigh of frustration. "That's it…that's all I can remember. I can't remember a house, or a dog, or even a family. It's as if I never even had one". She huffed up slightly, like any pouting child would.

Daniel began to stroke her back (a great feat as they were all still chained) as a show of comfort, but she immediately froze up, and quickly moved to the opposite side of the room. Daniel, a bit bewildered, got up and began to approach her. "It's all right. We aren't here to hurt you…we just want to take you home to where you belong". As he approached, she smiled up at him from the corner where they had first found her. "It's nothing personal," she explained, "it's just that the last person who touched me had to use the sarcophagus. Pretty scary, huh?" "It won't be if you tell me what happened" Daniel said while beckoning her back to the middle of the room.

"Well," she began, "didn't you ever wonder why Steve called me Shomei?" There was a snort from Col. O'Neill. "Steve?" She smiled, "Yeah, my Jaffa guards were forbidden from telling me their names, so I named them all myself". She seemed quite proud of this. "Anyway, Steve named me Shomei because of the experiments that 'Cruela' was performing on me". The mood in the room went quickly from laid-back prisoners to concerned prisoners. "What did she do to you?" Daniel had to know.

"She is not a very nice person, I can tell you that much. In fact, I don't think she is a person at all. She has this really deep, scary voice and she uses these really weird tools that I have never seen before." She stopped talking for a moment and shivered. Daniel, remembering the last time he tried to comfort her, simply murmured, "go on". Shomei exhaled deeply, as if preparing herself.

"I'm not sure why, but 'Cruela' said she wanted to give me superpowers. I told her that I didn't want any, but she wouldn't let me go. She had her big Jaffa strap me to a table with a big gun-shaped instrument pointed at it. I tried to get away, but I couldn't. Then, she turned it on and…" Shomei winced, almost as if the very thought of what happened hurt her, but she soon recovered and continued. "You get the picture, it shot like a gazillion volts of electricity in me and then I passed out. When I woke up, I was here," she finished with a shrug.

SG-1 was speechless, well, except for Captain Carter who felt compelled to ask, "you only went through that procedure once then?" Shomei's eyes went wide and she let out a kind of mocking laughter. "I wish…no, I can't even count how many times I have been in that thing."

O'Neill, who was finally starting to see the connection between the name and the experiment blurted out, "Ohhhhh…I see he called you lightning because he thought the electricity coming from that machine was lightning." "Yes, I suppose, but there is something else too. Yesterday, 'Cruela' pulled my hair really hard. It hurt, then it made me mad and…I don't know, I felt this power flow through me and then she screamed and fell down. I think that machine did something to me."

Teal'c got an idea from this new information. "Would it be possible for you to deactivate these shackles?" She looked confused. Carter understood his implications. "He's right! These cuffs have to be powered by something because there doesn't seem to be any key hole. If you could use the electricity your body most likely stored during those experiments you might be able to discharge enough into the cuffs to deactivate them!"

Shomei looked at Captain Carter skeptically. "What if I can't make it come out…or worse, what if I hurt one of you?" She seemed genuinely concerned. Col. O'Neill decided it was his turn to step up. "Use me as the guinea pig," he offered, "I've been zatted so many times that hopefully I can handle a few watts". She still looked doubtful about the whole thing, but Col. O'Neill offered up one of his smiles. She saw the trust in his eyes and the doubt was gone.

"Alright, come here." Col. O'Neill moved so that he was directly in front of this little girl that came only to his chest. She closed her eyes and put her hands on the shackles. There were several moments of silence before she sighed and opened her eyes. "This isn't working!" Daniel came up behind her to give her some encouragement. "What are you thinking about when you try to use the power?" She shook her head. "I don't know…I just try to imagine it, or maybe just think about it." Shomei's distress level was quickly rising.

Daniel thought for a moment, then, he had an epiphany. "What were you thinking the first time it happened?" As he asked this, he placed her hands back on Jack's cuffs. Shomei closed her eyes again and thought back to that moment. "I was alone in the room." She told them. "Alright, that's good, keep going…what happened next?" Daniel encouraged. "She walked in." The hatred was evident in her voice. "She was talking to me about something. Then I was smart back…she didn't like that. She grabbed my hair and pulled really hard. It hurt really bad." As she spoke, her hands began to emanate what can only be described as random tendrils of electricity that spread from her to light every corner of the small room.

SG-1 had nowhere to go, so they all, except Col. O'Neill, got down on the floor to avoid the dangerous waves of magma, hot energy. By now, O'Neill had his eyes closed as well. He was almost certain that he was dead, because he could feel the heat of the bolts just graze his outstretched arm, but was frozen in place by the fear of being deep fried.

Suddenly, it was all gone. The bolts and heat had disappeared. Daniel unclenched his eyes just in time to catch Shomei as she fell towards the floor. The rest of SG-1 slowly got up off of the floor. Carter quickly moved to check on Col. O'Neill. "Sir, are you alright?" she asked looking him over top to bottom. "I'm fine Captain, aside from a few singed arm hairs I should recover. Teal'c?" He noticed that Teal'c was staring at his hands. "I do not think it worked O'Neill." Teal'c replied.

At that moment, there were four clicks and all members of SG-1 watched as their restraints fell to the ground with a clatter. They looked at the girl who was responsible. She was unconscious in Daniel's lap. "Let's get out of here, so we can get this girl back to her family, shall we?" Col. O'Neill suggested. His team nodded their approval and they began making preparations.

Soooooo…what do you think? I know, not that much action, but there should be pleanty of action in the next installment of Electric Fun! Be sure to review! Love y'all!